


Soft Buzz

by fairydustedtheory



Series: A Wolf and a Spark verse - Sterek Bingo 2020 [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting, Child Derek Hale, Child Stiles Stilinski, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24196537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairydustedtheory/pseuds/fairydustedtheory
Summary: Stiles participates in a spelling bee, competing against his nemesis, Cora Hale.
Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski
Series: A Wolf and a Spark verse - Sterek Bingo 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1709788
Comments: 13
Kudos: 288





	Soft Buzz

**Author's Note:**

> Part of my Sterek Bingo 2020 oneshots. This is for the prompt Rivals and Self-Defense. (it's very light in terms of prompt fills but I wanted this to be fluffy)
> 
> Second installment of children!sterek, they're back on popular demand! (popular as in 3-4 people asked about it. see how powerful you guys' comments are on my brain?)
> 
> They are all in the same verse. The collection can be read as a whole but fics stand on their own.
> 
> Find me on [tumblr](https://fairydustedtheory.tumblr.com/tagged/plot%20twist%20:%20i%20write)
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Could someone tell Derek again why he needed to be there? He had better things to do, like play basketball with his friends or go run through the preserve and burn some of his excess energy.

It was almost the full moon. Full moons were getting harder as a teenager. There was a shift in the pull of the moon. Teenagers felt it come a couple of days before it was actually time. It wasn't the same as when he was a kid.

Cora, his little sister, had barely gotten the hang of it. Derek wasn't going to tell her than in a few years she would have to relearn everything she thought was true.

His mom, Talia, had been adamant, everybody was going to support Cora on her spelling bee competition today. No arguments allowed.

She even asked them to dress nicely for the occasion. It was just a third grade spelling bee competition, it wasn't like Derek's life was about to change or anything.

He decided to put on his suit, the one Dad had forced him to wear at that awful party at his law firm a couple of months ago. That had really been a crappy day, and even his mom couldn't disagree on this. It had been the longest and most boring dinner Derek and all the Hales had ever had to go through.

Derek put it on now, just to make a point. Today was going to be a crappy day too. He was going to dress accordingly.

If he needed to dress nicely, he was going to overdress nicely. Derek smirked.

Talia rolled her eyes at her son as he stomped down the stairs, but didn't say a word. He was coming and not making a fuss after all. Laura, his older sister, was already sitting on the front passenger seat, Cora in the back still studying her flash cards and Nathan, his baby brother, was in his car seat.

"Isn't Dad coming ?"

"He is working today, honey."

Dad was always working.

Derek caught a strange scent as soon as he stepped out of the car in the elementary school parking lot. He didn't really know when he had smelled it before. It felt familiar. Maybe it was just the overall scent of the school, he didn't overthink it.

Everybody went to sit on the wooden chair in the auditorium of the school. Derek still couldn't shake his full moon jitters, but focusing on the unknown scent made it a little better. Derek couldn't quite put a finger on what it was.

-

Stiles wasn't really sure why he had even signed up for the spelling bee. Mom was getting sicker, Dad was either working or at the hospital at this point. Nobody would come cheer him on.

Stiles didn't have many friends, just the one if he was being completely honest. Just Scott.

Scott had begrudgingly said yes when Stiles talked about signing up for the spelling bee. Scott wasn't great at spelling. But Scott was a good friend.

When Stiles buried himself in every encyclopedia about dinosaurs he could find, Scott would sit with him and look and comment on the pictures. He would listen to Stiles explain all the body parts and try to repeat the scientific names when Stiles insisted on trying to teach him. Scott was a good friend.

Dinosaurs, that was the passion at the moment, it would probably change soon, it had been trucks not a long time ago but then Stiles had exhausted the subject and there was nothing more to learn about trucks so he had moved on to dinosaurs and the Jurassic time period. Plenty to learn there.

The spelling bee seemed like something to pass the time, really. Melissa, Scott's mom, was incredibly kind to him and invited him to stay over as often as he liked. Dad took her up on the offer to take Stiles quite a lot too. He thought Stiles wouldn't feel all the pain if he was someplace else, not just hanging out in the hospital or at the station while he worked. Well, he was wrong. Stiles felt the pain everywhere he was.

And today was the spelling bee competition. Melissa had to work so she just dropped them off and would be coming to pick them up at the end. The only good thing about today was that Lydia Martin was here, the prettiest girl in school in Stiles' opinion. Absolutely out of Stiles' league at the moment, but things could change. Stiles wouldn't always be an eight year old boy. Who knew what it meant to be a teenager ?

"Oh no." Stiles breathed out to himself as he was settling down on the plastic chair on the stage.

Cora Hale had signed up too. That was just his luck. Cora, the meanest girl in school in Stiles' opinion.

-

The whole thing was ridiculous. There was a big banner above the stage and carboard cutouts of bees hanging from the ceiling.

Talia had them all sitting in the second row. Derek wasn't allowed to stay in the back and he wasn't allowed to take out his mp3 player to tune out the horrendous misspelling happening on stage. He had to be present for his sister bla-bla-bla.

Cora had been assigned the number three. Next to her was a boy Derek was pretty sure he had already seen. He wasn't sure where, but around here somewhere. The name was something unpronounceable, something like Mick-slof Stilinski. Something like that. Didn't ring a bell. He was number four. Something in Derek kept him focused on that boy a little longer than normal. Derek shrugged it off after a couple of minutes.

The words started quite easy.

"Cotton. C-O-T-T-O-N. Cotton." Cora smiled.

"Correct."

Talia and Laura cheered, even Nathan seemed happy even if he had no idea what was going on. Derek rolled his eyes.

"Number four, your word is destructive."

"Destructive. D-E-S-T-R-U-C-T-I-V-E. Destructive."

"Correct."

Derek looked around to see where Number four's family was sitting, but nobody cheered. Except for another little boy on stage, number two, who had been eliminated on his first word, fist-bumping number four, nobody celebrated the win. Derek frowned. Maybe they were late.

-

Stiles stood up again to go to the microphone stand. It felt weird doing this with no one in the audience to watch him, but he was still on a high mix of adrenaline and excitement every time their teacher said "correct" to him and even to Lydia. Stiles secretly wanted her to win. Scott was the only one there, and he had been eliminated on the word Justice. Scott had apparently misunderstood and thought it was something about juice-tees. Stiles snorted at the memory from two minutes ago.

"Number four, your word is compassion."

"Compassion. C-O-M-P-A-S-S-I-O-N. Compassion."

"That is correct."

Some random people in the audience, clapped. Stiles gave a tight smile and went to sit down again.

It was Lydia's turn and Stiles' heart broke when she misspelled the word weight. Yeah that one was a tricky one, but Stiles knew it, he studied the weight of dinosaurs all day long, no way he would have put the i before the e. He wasn't going to rub it in. Lydia barely spoke it him on any given day so he wasn't going to say anything about this now for fear of her hating him for all eternity.

"We are now down to our final two contestants. We are going to take a short break. Please feel free to enjoy our snacks and refreshments and we will be back in about twenty minutes."

Scott was on him in a second as he was walking backstage.

"Dude, you're so gonna win ! No way Cora is smarter than you !"

"Really, McCall ?" Cora snarled at them. "Because all I see here is a bunch of losers. You know, the word opposite to winner."

"Let's just go, Stiles. It stinks here." Scott said pulling him by the arm.

"Yeah, follow your mommy out of here." Cora called after them.

"What did you just say ?" Stiles was seeing red.

Anger buzzed through him. It happened sometimes, the buzzing. He wasn't clear on what it was. It was strong though. He had tried to talk to his dad about it once but Dad had been too busy looking over the hospital bills to really pay attention. So Stiles was alone dealing with all the buzzing running through him. Right now the buzzing was all he could feel.

"I said -"

Stiles threw a punch. He didn't even think about it he just swung right at her face. He didn't actually hit her though, she was too fast somehow and caught his fist before it hit her.

"Ow ow" Stiles whimpered, as she wouldn't let go of his hand.

"Cora !" A teenage boy called. "Let him go. Now."

His voice was commanding, even Stiles felt it travel through him. It gave him goosebumps.

"You suck." Cora scowled at the teenager.

"Mom heard everything." He answered, with his eyebrows raised, very unimpressed.

Cora left to go to the main room, her shoulders a little less assertive than before.

"Thanks." Stiles mumbled, looking down.

"Let's go grab an apple juice." The teenager offered, putting a hand on Stiles' shoulder.

Stiles felt the shivers again.

-

The kid was breathing heavily as Derek guided him out to the snack table. He had been pretty shaken up by his fight with Cora. Derek was pretty shaken up because now that he was this close, he knew the familiar scent was actually this boy. That made no sense.

"I don't like to fight." Number four confessed.

"It's alright to defend yourself against a bully." Derek said. "Cora can be mean. You were brave to put her in her place."

"Right. I was just defending myself then."

"Right."

"Even if I was the one to throw the punch ? Does it still qualify as defense ?" Number four frowned.

"Definitely." Derek smiled, hearing the heart next to him beating just slightly steadier now.

"Have you ever punched someone ?"

Derek frowned. There was that one time he tried to get into a fight with Uncle Peter but that had barely lasted a second before Derek ended on the ground, his face eating the dirt.

"I tried. And failed. It was way worse than what you did today." He admitted.

Number four smiled at him, something churned in Derek's gut. It was the first real smile he had seen on the little boy since the whole contest started.

"Can I ask something ?" Number four asked tentatively.

"Shoot."

"Why are you dressed so strangely ?" He scrunched up his nose in disgust. Really, like his dinosaur t-shirt was more fashionable.

"I couldn't find any t-shirt with an Abelisaurus on it in my size." Derek smirked.

"Woooaaahh you know this is an Abelisaurus." His eyes grew wide staring at his own t-shirt. "You're the first person in my entire life to not call this a T-Rex ! You're awesome ! You like dinosaurs ?"

"Yeah sure." Derek shrugged, not absolutely convincing but enough to make Number four beam the brightest smile Derek had ever seen.

The boy then went on and on about dinosaurs for the reminder of the break. Derek's full moon jitters seemingly lost ground as the boy's voice resonated through him. It wasn't so much about the words than it was about the presence and the voice, and the soft buzz radiating out of him. It calmed something in Derek so much faster than when he kept repeating _Alpha Beta Omega_ in his head. He couldn't remember the last time he had felt this anchored.

Number four was called back on stage with the rest of the spelling bee contestants. Derek tried to not feel a sting as he watched him walk away from him. The boy gave the stink eye at Cora as she walked by him, and Cora glared back. Derek huffed out a small laugh. These two were ridiculous.

"The rule of the spelling bee changes for the final two contestants. At this stage, each contestant will be given a word to spell. If that word is spelled incorrectly, the second contestant will have to spell the same word before spelling a second word for the win. We will continue until we get our winner."

"Number three. Your word is unusual."

Cora went to the microphone. "Unusual. U-N-U-S-U-A-L. Unusual."

"That is correct."

Talia and Laura cheered next to Derek.

"Number four. Your word is doubtfully."

"Doubtfully. D-O- ..." Derek could hear Number four's heart and it was steady. He knew the word. He gave a quick side-eyes glance at Cora before smirking, "U-B-T-F-U-L-L-Y. Doubtfully."

"Correct."

Derek clapped, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

"Number three. Your word is unfortunately."

"Unfortunately. U-N-F-O-R-T-U-N-A-T-E-L-Y. Unfortunately."

"Correct."

"Just like unfortunately Stiles is going to lose." Cora hissed in Number Four's direction.

Talia and Laura didn't cheer too loudly now. They didn't appreciate Cora's bullying ways either. Derek knew very well Cora was going to get a earful on the way home. She deserved it.

"Number four. Your word is frightened."

"Frightened. F-R-I-G-H-T-E-N-E-D. Frightened."

"That is correct."

Derek suddenly let out a small whoop. It came out of him out of nowhere as he was clapping. Laura turned to him, a questioning eyebrow raised. He didn't even want to think about it. Number four was killing it.

"Number three. Your word is ordinary."

"Ordinary. O-R-D... O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y. Ordinary."

"Number three, you were not supposed to start the word again."

"Crap." Cora said.

"Language !" The teacher and Talia said in unison.

Derek laughed.

-

Stiles snickered as Cora was being reprimanded by the teacher. He walked to the microphone. He hoped to get everything right and to go back to the snack table with Scott to eat some of the cookies still left there.

He had completely forgotten to eat any during the break, he had been too busy speaking about dinosaurs with that cool teenager. Stiles had never thought teenagers were cool before today, never really wondered what it would be like to have a cousin or an older neighbor to look up to. It felt nice to be taken under someone's wing, even if it had been only for ten minutes.

And he was Cora's brother, so it wasn't like they would be randomly meeting for play dates or anything like that in the future. It was disappointing that someone as mean as Cora could have a cool older brother. He had always thought older brothers were supposed to torture their little siblings. But this one, it felt different.

"Number Four. It is your turn." The teacher cut his train of thoughts.

"Right. The word was ordinary. Ordinary. O-R-D-I-N-A-R-Y. Ordinary."

"That is correct. Number four, your word for the win is immortality."

Stiles' heart spiked in his chest. He knew the word. He knew it very well because in between reading about trucks and about dinosaurs, he had picked up a book from the library. He was getting scared, terrified really, about what was happening to his mom and he had hoped to find something in that one book.

The librarian had looked at him with sadness in her eyes when he asked about the spells in the book and if any of the magical stuff could possibly be true. She didn't say no, but she clearly didn't mean yes. So all that immortality chapter and how alchemists tried to make it happen was probably just a lie. Stiles had read the chapter four times from beginning to end but it had been useless. Nowhere in the book at it been said that anyone had been able to make it happen anyway.

He sniffed and swallowed around the tightness in his throat.

He looked at the crowd, empty of anyone he actually knew, until his eyes locked with that one teenager, looking at him so earnestly, as if he could hear everything happening in Stiles' chest or everything Stiles was thinking.

He took a deep breath and said in a trembling voice. "Immortality. I-M-M-O-R-T-A-L-I-T-Y. Immortality."

"That is correct. We have a winner !"

The teenage boy actually jumped up from his seat, clapping with a big loud "Woohoo Number four !"

Stiles grinned, around the tears forming in his eyes.

Scott was jumping on his back saying "Congratulations, dude ! You rock !"

But Stiles' eyes couldn't leave the teenager still smiling at him in the crowd.

Something felt right in the world.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed the story, consider leaving a kudo/comment.  
> Find me on [tumblr](https://fairydustedtheory.tumblr.com/tagged/plot%20twist%20:%20i%20write)


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